May a city employee who is a
“specified employee” under Section 2-78 of the Ethics Code contract with the
city to provide catering services?

II. Inquiry

A city employee has a family
restaurant business.The employee is a
“specified employee” who is required to file an annual gift report under
Section 2-78 of the Ethics Code.The
employee inquires whether she and her family’s business may seek and accept a
contract with the city to provide catering services for an event.

III. The City Charter and the Ethics Code – Prohibited Interests in
Contracts

Section 141 of the City Charter
provides:

No officer or
employee of the City shall have a financial interest, direct or indirect, in
any contract with the City, or shall be financially interested, directly or
indirectly, in the sale to the City of any land, materials, supplies, or
service, except on behalf of the City as an officer or employee.

The prohibition is reiterated in
Section 2-52 of the city’s Ethics Code. Section 2-52 provides that an employee is
presumed to have a prohibited interest in a contract between the city and the
employee’s immediate family members, including siblings and any businesses in
which the employee or the employee’s family holds 10% or more ownership
interest.

Section 2-52 defines “employees”
who are subject to this prohibition as “any employee of the city who is
required to file a financial disclosure statement pursuant to Section
2-73(a).”This employee is a
“specified employee” and as such, is required to file an annual gift report
under Section 2-78 of the Ethics Code; this category of employee, however, is
not required to file the full financial disclosure statements under Section
2-73(a).Accordingly, the prohibition
under Section 141 of the City Charter and Section 2-52 of the city’s Ethics
Code is not applicable to this employee.

IV.The
Ethics Code- Conflicting Outside
Employment

Section 2-48
of the Ethics Codes states:

(a)General Rule.A city official or employee shall not
solicit, accept, or engage in concurrent outside employment which could
reasonably be expected to impair the independence of judgment in, or faithful
performance of, official duties.

(b)Special
Application.The following special rule applies in
addition to the general rule:A city
official or employee shall not provide services to an outside employer related
to the official’s or employee’s city duties.

(c)Other Rules.The general rule stated above applies in
addition to all other rules relating to outside employment of city officials
and employees, including requirement for obtaining prior approval of outside
employment as applicable.

The employee has indicated that any work performed in
connection with the catering contract would be done outside her city duty hours
and without the use of any city resources.The work under the subcontract also appears to be wholly unrelated to
the employee’s city duties.Further, she
would have no role in the awarding or administration of the contract.Accordingly, Section 2-48 would not prohibit
this employee from seeking the catering contract with the city.

However, under Personnel Rule XXIV, employees must obtain
written approval from their department before engaging in the outside
employment.Assuming that the outside
employment will not interfere with the employee’s work for the city and
assuming the department head has approved the additional employment in writing,
the employee may apply for and accept the consultation services contract.

V.Conclusion

The employee is not prohibited under Section 141 of the
City Charter or Section 2-52 of the Ethics Code from seeking subcontract
employment related to a city contract since this employee is not required to
file financial disclosure requirements under Section 2-73 of the Ethics Code.

Assuming compliance with Municipal Civil Service Rule
XXIV, the employee may subcontract with his sibling in connection with the
sibling’s city contract.However, he may
not engage in any work pertaining to the subcontract using any city resource,
including his city duty time.